


(i better be) around you

by cngkyns



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Blind Date, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Mutual Pining, Pining, also hyejoo streams once in a while, and lip is only mentioned once, chaewon owes everyone favours lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25443079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cngkyns/pseuds/cngkyns
Summary: "I never expected to go on a date with you," sniffs Hyunjin.Hyejoo shrugs carelessly. "Me too."In which Hyunjin sets on her first (blind) date and Hyejoo is pleasantly surprised. (But why should she? Chaewon did owe her a favour, after all.)
Relationships: Kim Hyunjin/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Comments: 9
Kudos: 84





	(i better be) around you

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaa hello! this is my first time posting a loona fic despite stanning them since chuu's debut (and i've never posted anything for ggs before), so i'm nervous and eggcited! hyunjin/hyejoo is my secret guilt ship bc i like their jock/goth gf aesthetics lmao   
>  anyway this fic took a while for me to write and i wanted to get it out of my hands asap, so it's unbeta-ed (as you do). i hope you enjoy!
> 
> **edit:** the sweetest kei drew [art](https://coffay.tumblr.com/post/625730449343479808/some-hyejoo-x-hyunjin-that-i-never-knew-i-needed) of this fic! pls appreciate how beautiful it is i'm sobbing

For someone with acclaimed beauty, brains and brawns as her, Kim Hyunjin has never been on a date before. Not during her school's Valentine events, prom nights, or in her dreams. As much as people pined over her over the years and she pined back, no one— and nothing— was worth the effort or time of asking someone out, planning and preparing for the date, then setting out for the actual date. The nerves, the _what-ifs_ , and the possibilities of rejection from either party were too much to handle, too much to think about, and Hyunjin likes to conserve her brain for school purposes only. Besides, she once read on SNS that love falls on your lap when you least expect it to, so why should she rush?

(After seeing Yerim being bombarded by chocolates and pastries from their schoolmates on Christmas Secret Santa, Valentine's Day and even her birthday, Hyunjin thinks that maybe romance is worth a try. Just maybe.)

Her lack of interest in pursuing love still shocks her friends, who grew up with her since they learned how to speak, and Heejin had more than enough of her best friend's loveless loitering. She loves Hyunjin as if she was her own blood but there was so much of her reckless, injury-inducing, reputation-ruining "adventures" that Heejin could only tolerate for seventeen years. Rolling up her sleeves metaphorically and literally, she takes matters into her own hands and announces, out of the blue, that Hyunjin will go on a blind date next Saturday.

"Huh?" Barely a minute after the lunch bell rang and busy unpacking her lunchbox, Hyunjin stares up at her best friend's face in blank confusion, uncertain if she heard it wrong or not. "A blind date? Me?"

Yerim, who had been laying out her lunch (plus the bonus chocolate goods that a junior had gifted her that morning) on the table, gasps in visible excitement. "Oh? Hyunjin is going on a date?"

"With who?" asks the girl in question.

Heejin grins. "Someone you know well enough to not be scared, but enough to make it awkward."

"Well, seeing as you two are my only friends here, there are a lot of possible names if you put it that way."

"How did you do it?" Yerim continues, twinkling eyes staring at their friend. "Nobody's had the courage to ask her out before, not even indirectly."

"Oh, I have my ways." Popping a cherry tomato into her mouth, Heejin wipes the corners of her lips with a tissue before she says, "Some things happened in between and it worked out for both parties, so now it's settled that Kim Hyunjin has a date."

"Wow!" Despite not being the intended audience nor subject of the topic, Yerim is far more excited about the news than both of her friends combined. She claps her hand and beams, her signature sunny smile— the one strong enough to steal the hearts of an entire girls' academy— dazzling the table now. "That's amazing! Congrats, Hyunjin!'

Hyunjin juts out her bottom lip in protest towards Heejin. "Don't say my full name like that. It sounds like you're angry at me for something I didn't even do."

The other girl shrugs, waving her chopsticks in the air. "With how long I had to put up with your wild antics, I have all the right to be angry at you...but I'm not."

Even though Heejin's tone was light and teasing, Hyunjin isn't sure whether the girl truly meant it or not, so she deposits three extra fries on Heejin's lunch box for safety measures.

"So where will it be?" she asks. "What do I wear, what will we do, where do we meet?"

"We'll see," answers her friend. "I haven't confirmed anything yet except for your blind date and, well, the day of the date, but don't worry. I'm sure she'll be great. No, she __is__ great."

With her past experiences of Heejin's craftiness, Hyunjin groans and thunks her head on the table, feeling the dread creeping up her arms and torso. "I'm not sure your definition of great matches mine."

Next to her, Yerim catches on to the twinkle in Heejin's eyes and stares at her friend with sharp suspicion.

("Psst, Heejin. _Heejin_. Look this way."

A few hours later when they're in their last class of the day, after she finishes copying the notes from the board, Heejin caps her pen and glances over her shoulder where Yerim sat. "What's up?"

"Who did you set up Hyunjin with?"

A sly smile. "Why should I tell you? It's a secret."

"Because I have a hunch about it. Is it..." Eyes darting around the classroom to make sure nobody else sees or hears them, Yerim mouths a name, syllable by syllable, slowly. "Her?"

Heejin raises her eyebrows once, impressed by her friend's accuracy, then grins before she turns back to her seat. "You'll find out later.")

Three classrooms away from theirs, an English lesson was in full swing: their textbooks are out, each student taking turns to read a sentence from the chosen passage, new vocabulary and grammar scribbled across the board or written on papers that decorate the walls.

Chaewon fidgets in her seat two rows from the front, trying to maintain a straight face and not look at her best friend, Hyejoo, every few seconds. Nobody pays attention to her constant squirming because the passage they're reading requires higher focus than usual, but the teacher, not liking how she isn't focused in class, calls her out to answer a question.

"Miss Chaewon," announces their teacher after a student has finished reading. The girls flinch at the sudden interruption in the flow. "Could you explain what _that cost an arm and a leg_ means in this context?"

Before she could even fathom for an answer, a red blush colours her cheeks. "Um...um..." Chaewon steals a glance at her empty notebook, useless for all matters except for doodling comics and planning escape routes from school. "It means that the person was amputated?"

Four seats away from her best friend, Hyejoo's head snaps up from doodling in the margins of her notebook. There's laughter bubbling forth from her lips, but it sounds condescending to everyone but Chaewon (who she grew up with like twin sisters), so she stifles it with a cough to the hand instead.

Although their teacher frowns and chides her for not paying attention in class, Chaewon picks up on Hyejoo's sound and glares at her best friend.

When they're finally free to do their own work, Hyejoo slides into the seat beside her friend and nudges her on the shoulder. "Hey, what was up with your answer just now? I've never heard you being that dumb before."

"Shut up," whines the shorter girl. "It's your fault I couldn't concentrate in class."

"Huh? Why? Were you too busy thinking about my beautiful face?"

Chaewon sticks out a tongue and leans back in her seat. "Just because Jinsoul called you pretty the other day, doesn't mean you should let it get into your head. You're uglier than me anyway." Then, as an afterthought, she adds, "I have news for you."

Hyejoo's eyes narrow. Great. Half a day may have passed but it's still too early for her to deal with her best friend's shenanigans, which always manage to involve her even though she steers herself clear from any trouble. Her voice dropping into a flat, exasperated tone, she asks, "What did you do now?"

Averting her gaze away, Chaewon smiles meekly. "I may have...used you...in a bargain."

The younger girl blinks in confusion. "A bargain? Me?"

"Yeah. Well, it's less of a bargain and more of a...a matchmaking session. Okay, let's call it a blind date."

Nothing good can come out of listening to her best friend, so she returns to her work and turns a blind eye (or rather, a deaf ear). "Huh," Hyejoo mumbles, flipping through the pages of her notebook as she begins her class work. "Then?"

"Do you remember Jeon Heejin from the student council? The really pretty girl in class 2-1 who won Freshman's It Girl last year?"

A nod.

Chaewon inhales. "You know how I've been slacking with homework and class assignments this semester, right? I couldn't attend several meetings since we started the semester and missed out on my portion of the student council work, especially during the cultural festival, so President Jungeun got angry at me for skipping. She was ready to kick me out but then Heejin covered me and somehow kept me in the roster, so basically... I owe her a favour."

Not sure where the direction of the conversation was going, Hyejoo's eyebrows dip and she narrows her eyes. "Okay. You owe Heejin your entire life at this point. What's new. So what does that have anything to do with me?"

"She said she's been looking for a girl to go on a date with her best friend, and her best friend is—"

"Kim Hyunjin," answers Hyejoo without looking up. The school's It Girl, Jeon Heejin, and their best athlete, Kim Hyunjin, were an infamous pair of best friends, both girls with equal beauty, deadly charms but opposite personalities, and Hyejoo herself had pined over Hyunjin for some time by now.

It takes two seconds to put the points together, Chaewon halting for a moment as she waits for her best friend to process her words, before Hyejoo takes a sharp inhale, head snapping up, and her mouth drops open. Another second passes in silence. Then an outburst of, "Wait, what __exactly__ did you do?"

Their classmates seated a table away from them send curious looks. Flustered, Chaewon raises a finger to her lips and shushes her, before continuing in low tones, "I...set you up on a date! With Kim Hyunjin!"

"What?!"

From the front of the classroom, their teacher puts their finger down and yells, "Quiet!"

The dreaded blind date comes in a blink of an eye. Normally, weekends are a cause for celebration for Hyunjin, who would roll up her sleeves and get up to her crazy plans (often involving impractical pranks) or sleep in like a log, but this time, she grumbles about being woken up and covers herself with her quilt instead.

Heejin, standing over her bed with an arm on one hip, yanks off the quilt with surprising power. "Wake up, you lazy horse. You're leaving in two hours."

"Two hours is plenty of time to prepare," whines her friend, refusing to open her eyes to the harsh sunlight entering her room. Hair falling into her eyes and imprinting on her cheeks, Hyunjin rolls over and grumbles, "Give me five more minutes."

"You said that six times already. Thirty minutes are gone. Get up."

A muffled groan comes from beneath the blanket.

In another corner of the room, Yerim opens a packet of chips she found on her friend's desk, letting out a curious "Hmm?" at the flavour. After she finishes the chip in her hand, she asks, "Hey Hyunjin, you have a really weird taste in snacks."

"Huh?"

"Why are your jelly beans so disgusting? And who eats sweet fish chips?" Licking off the potato chips dust from her fingers like erasing any traces of her crime, Yerim says, "At least this one tastes good. Where do you find these?"

The bed creaks as Hyunjin sits up ramrod straight, eyes wide at the empty plastic packets adorning her desk. "Yerim, have you been going through my _snack stash_?" she screeches.

Though Heejin is wincing at the loud volume at the early morning and has placed her palms against her ears, she lets out a relieved smile. At least her best friend is finally awake.

There is no way Kim Hyunjin, who wears the same three outfits every week (including their uniforms), owns this many clothes in her small wardrobe.

After they've pushed their friend into the shower, rushed her through her skincare routine and a small yet filling breakfast, Heejin and Yerim have bulldozed through her wardrobe and created a mountain of clothes on the floor right beneath her bed, sifting through each one to see if they could find a perfect outfit. Hyunjin, wearing last night's pajamas while she towels her hair, stares at the accumulating mess with all hope given up— her mother won't let her eat a second portion of dinner until she finishes tidying this up— and sits down on the edge of the bed.

Draping a mismatched tee on top of a pair of jeans, Yerim comments, "You have nice pieces but they make terrible outfits."

"She never developed a fashion sense, Yerim. Go easy on her," says Heejin, chucking away her ninth outfit idea into the clothes pile.

Hyunjin huffs. "No, _you_ should go easy on me."

"We've been together since we were kids. Catch up to my strength."

Yerim giggles, knowing that Heejin would lose to Hyunjin in an arm wrestle competition in a heartbeat. Staring down at the pile of clothes she threw on the floor before her, she says, "Hey, how about this outfit?"

Thirty minutes and a frustrated Heejin later, the three of them settle for a white tank top tucked into a pair of black shorts, an unbuttoned, oversized blouse thrown over the top. Busting out Hyunjin's almost-dried makeup (the one that Yerim bought her last birthday since her friend wanted to try makeup, but it ended up collecting dust instead), they line her eyes into a catlike shape, dust her cheeks with a vivid rosy blush, plump her lips with a glossy pink, and tied her hair to the side for an Ultimate Girlfriend Effect (as Yerim dubs it, to which Heejin absolutely agrees). There's ten minutes left before Hyunjin has to rush to the bus stop and catch the downtown one, so the girls get in a huddle, yell "Fighting!" and tumble all over the sidewalk to see Hyunjin run off.

Heejin places her hands on her hips and heaves a sigh, a nostalgic smile tugging at her lips. "She's growing up."

To her side, Yerim thinks of the strings Heejin pulled to get this date together, shakes her head and silently begs to differ.

"Here. You look good like this."

After being dolled up by Chaewon for the past four hours, Hyejoo's back aches from hunching over her vanity (so the older girl can do her makeup) and her butt hurts from sitting in the chair for too long. It doesn't help that her knees knock against her dresser too often and that her shoulders, often covered beneath hoodies and baggy shirts, was now exposed through her off-the-shoulder top.

("Wait, I don't recall owning this," said Hyejoo as her best friend pulled it from the back of the closet.

Chaewon shrugs. "Maybe it's a blessing from the gods of romance." Then, noticing a too-familiar detail on the top, she squints and holds it close to her face, realisation dawning on her. "Oh! So _this_ is where my top went!")

Coupled with a pair of capri pants and modest flats, her hair tied back into a half-ponytail, Hyejoo's gloomy aura now bloomed with femininity and the smell of her mother's citrus perfume. The clock on the wall says that they're thirty minutes away before she's due to leave, so Chaewon lifts her friend up by arms (to which her friend protests, "I'm not a child! And I'm literally a head taller than you!") out of the bedroom and into the porch, where she pushes the younger girl onto the sidewalk.

Hyejoo grunts, catching onto the mailbox right before she falls to the ground. "You know," she says, pulling herself upright, "I'm keeping count of how many times you've handled me roughly today. Once I get back from this stupid date, I'm going to beat you to death."

"You always win against me in Mario Kart."

"Not that," retorts Hyejoo, staring her best friend down and cracking her knuckles. "But this."

Chaewon lets out a nervous laugh.

_(Sometime last month, two girls face each other in an empty classroom long after school hours were over. Between a row of desks stood Heejin, whose crossed arms and even crosser face darkened her powerful It Girl aura, towering over Chaewon, small and timid and cunning in tricking others into thinking that she was small and timid at all._

_"If I had to be the one taking president Jungeun's anger, you could at least justify your actions to me, so why don't you explain yourself?" asks the taller girl, voice cold in irritation._

_Chaewon winces and purses her lips. She shouldn't have binged that web drama in the middle of the week when she had a lab report and two essays due by Friday, as well as this month's proposal for the student council, but the plot was too juicy for her to stop before midnight and now here she is, knee-deep in the mess she churned. "I- I'm sorry. I don't have any excuse."_

_"Pitying you and letting you in is the worst decision I've ever made," groans Heejin, pinching her nose bridge between her index finger and her thumb. It reminds Chaewon of her mother's nagging._

_The petite girl cowers into herself. "I'm sorry. I really am. I...I'll do anything to make it up to you."_

_"Really?"_

_Heejin's unimpressed tone sends chills down Chaewon's spine. "Y-yes."_

_"Why should I trust you?"_

_At this point, Chaewon, queen of irritating people for fun but unable to handle their wrath, could cry. The tension was far too much for her tiny stature to handle. "I'll- I'll finish my proposals and my proportion of the student council, and in addition, I'll do anything for you!" she ends up blabbering. "Please don't kick me out or- or—"_

_"Great!" All of a sudden, the tension in the air snaps as the taller girl claps her hands and grins. "I've had this plan for a while now, but I can't move forward without your help, so hear me out." Heejin motions her schoolmate to come closer. "Your best friend likes my best friend, right?"_

_And the rest was history.)_

When Hyunjin arrives at the park where they're supposed to meet, their designated meeting spot— a bench facing the large fountain bordered by blooming flowers— is still empty. Save for a mother with her baby carriage, a young man with his dog, and pigeons pecking on the sidewalk, the area was quiet and deserted. A light wind dances through the area, rustling the flowers and grass and tree leaves, carrying distant laughter from another section of the park.

Making her way to the bench, Hyunjin removes her satchel from her shoulder and places it on her lap, then rearranges her blouse so that it covers her lap too. __T_ hese denim shorts are too damn short to be_ _fashionable_ , she scowled internally, _and what's the point of wearing things that make you cold, anyway?_

Minutes pass. Ten, fifteen, twenty. Thirty, forty, forty-five. Fifty. Fifty five. Her legs bounce faster with each passing minute, eyes darting around the park to make sure she isn't missing her date, whoever they are.

No sign of them.

Whipping out her phone, Hyunjin sends her best friend irritation-fueled angry texts. _what did you sign me up for?_

_my date isn't coming._

_is this a joke? is me being stood up your idea of a practical prank?_

Not even a minute later, the other girl replies with her own string of texts. _be patient, you musclehead. your date arrived five minutes ago._

_if she arrived, then where the hell is she_

"Kim Hyunjin?"

Before she proceeds to cuss her best friend out, Hyunjin's head snaps up at her name. A dark silhouette falls on her frame and blocks out the hot rays from her sight, providing momentary relief from being blinded. Squinting against the harsh backlight, she can make out familiar, droopy eyes, a pouty triangular mouth, hair as black as night tied to a side ponytail... and it all comes together.

Hyunjin blinks. Hyejoo blinks.

"Son Hyejoo?!"

From across the fountain, the baby in the carriage bursts into tears.

Getting ice cream didn't seem the best decision to make because it melts much too fast for them to enjoy it in this weather, but Hyunjin appreciates having something else to do than talk to the girl next to her.

Which, she admits, is rude in retrospect, but how does she act around someone she's never exchanged more than two words with— _good morning_ — who also intimidates her to the core?

(Heejin always scoffs at that because, given Hyunjin's physical skills, her surprisingly short temper and her craftiness, _she_ should be the one feared.)

While they eat their ice creams, Hyunjin steals glances from her peripheral vision at her date. Hyejoo is quiet and almost invisible, but the rumours surrounding her compensate for it. They say that she's the daughter of a gangster's family, that her brother was a former delinquent at another school, that her stony stare means death wishes for whoever was on the receiving end of it— yet now that Hyunjin is in front of the girl herself, she could see the rumours to be nothing but that. Even Hyejoo's small, catlike licks of her ice cream were silent and unassuming like the rest of her, shoulders turned inwards and eyes kept on the ground as if wishing to disappear.

Neither side offered an explanation for their situation. No words were exchanged save for the surprised greetings five minutes ago. It's awkward and a little tense, but Hyejoo doesn't have a solution for it, so she continues eating her ice cream before the sun could melt it away.

The girl beside her clears her throat. Hyejoo turns and notices that Hyunjin's ice cream is gone, leaving behind a vanilla-streaked cone in her sticky palms, and raises her brow in question.

"So," Hyunjin begins. "Any idea why we're here now?"

Hyejoo shakes her head. "I don't know. Chaewon dragged me into this against my will."

That eases an unexpected smile from her date, who busies herself by licking the last drops of vanilla ice cream from her cone, her shoulders losing tension and dropping downwards. "Sorry for the rude way I greeted you by the way. Heejin forced me into this and I had no idea what was going to happen— I never expected to go on a date with you," sniffs Hyunjin.

Hyejoo shrugs carelessly, ignoring the slight pang those words bring to her heart. "Me too."

Gaining more confidence towards the girl, Hyunjin carries on, "Is there, um, anything you want to do or anywhere you want to go?"

"No." Hyejoo crunches through her ice cream cone in three big bites, a feat Hyunjin is secretly impressed with. "I'm fine with anything."

Her date stands up. "Let's explore the area then."

To her surprise, Hyejoo enjoys being dragged around by her crush.

She's used to Chaewon's pushiness and falling into trouble with her best friend's unpredictable, nonsensical antics, but Hyunjin's lead is different. Her grip on Hyejoo's wrist is firm, excited yet nervous, guiding her through a sea of people and endless mazes of narrow alleys , and when Hyunjin releases her wrist after a while, Hyejoo's heart continues to pound in her chest.

Hyejoo is renowned for not being a girl of words, so the other girl supposes that an arcade could at least pull a smile or a laugh which should suffice for the entire date— after all, they don't have anything in common to talk about, and who doesn't like games? So Hyunjin, desperate to break the bubble of awkward silence between them, asks, "Do you like arcades?"

To Hyunjin's surprise, her date nods and breaks into the smallest of smiles. "Yeah, I do. I go there once in a while."

"With who?"

A shrug. "Alone."

"Oh." Not sure what she can say to that, Hyunjin keeps her mouth shut for the next minute while she leads her date around a right turn. "Well, there's an arcade nearby with plenty of machines, so do you want to go there with me?"

Her date stays silent. When Hyunjin looks at her for an answer, she notices the twinkles in Hyejoo's eyes and an excited, slight curve of her lips, and her brows rise in surprise.

"Sure," Hyejoo answers.

So they enter an arcade squeezed between two shops with an interior ten times bigger than its exterior, colourful lights dancing to the upbeat music blasted from within. Two flights of stairs by the entrance lead to a second floor where a cafe and the rewards exchange counter sat adjacent to each other, while the first floor contained most of the games— shooters, rhythm, basketball hoops, air hockey, racing, claw machines, and two pairs pair of very large Dance Dance Revolution machines.

Even though Hyunjin led them here so her date could break out of her shell, she feels excitement seeping into her faster than excited, heart beating in time to the music and a grin uncontrollably spreading across her face. Though Hyejoo opened her mouth to say something, ready to take the lead in their date now, Hyunjin grabs the girl's wrist first to drag them to the first games she eyed: fighting games.

"Let's play this one!"

Hyejoo blinks. "Eh, ah, sure. We need to buy—"

"Let's play Tekken," continues Hyunjin, manuevering her date to the opposite pair of machines. "I always play Street Fighter when I come here, so I want to try something different for once."

"Sure, I don't mind any, but we need to buy—"

"Ah, right, the coins!" Hyunjin exclaims right before she plops herself on the seat. "Oh man, I hope nobody will take our seat there."

Letting herself be pulled away from the machines to buy themselves a generous serving of coins, Hyejoo stifles a shy smile behind her back. __She's so cute__ , she thinks _ _.__

Maybe Hyunjin regrets going to the arcade.

At the beginning, she thought she could break whatever ice was between them by playing games together and impressing Hyejoo with her impeccable gamer skills. Hyunjin had never lost to her friends before and ruled over her group with her gamer crown. However, she wasn't equipped with the knowledge that Hyejoo is a gamer __goddess__ , with an array of consoles, a huge PC setup (Hyejoo proudly showed a picture of it to her) in her bedroom, and even a Twitch channel where she streams whenever she could.

Hyunjin gulps as she finds herself defeated by her date for the third time on the racecar machine, her back thumping against the large chair behind her. Hyejoo grins to herself, childlike smiles all around, as she looks over the girl next to her.

"I won again," she declares. "Do you want to play another round?"

"Nope," answers Hyunjin. She slides off the seat and grabs her bag. "I'm done losing to you."

Hyejoo giggles, amused at the childlike tone.

"Have you played that one before?" The former points to the Dance Dance Revolution machines over yonder, a short queue forming on one side for the games as they watch the current players dance away. "They're fun."

"I'm not good on my feet," answers Hyejoo earnestly, but she slides off her seat too and follows her date to the games. "But I can try."

"Don't worry, we can play the easy levels first!" her date says. "I'm not good at it either, but it's fun so I don't care about winning or losing."

Hyejoo hums, settling into the queue with Hyunjin as they watch the players take the turns. Famous K-pop and J-pop songs blast from the machines, agile feet jumping on the buttons to the rhythm of the music while arms grab onto the bar for stability, triumphant laughs and defeated sighs coming out of the players at the end of their turns. This contagious energy, this exciting beat seeps into the floor and crawls up Hyejoo's legs, pushing out any slither of hesitance inside her until she's nodding along, bouncing up and down, and Hyunjin grins at her excitement.

When their turn arrives, they agree on _Girl's Generation - Mr. Mr._ set on Normal difficulty. Hyejoo glances at the girl beside her, whose face was drawn into concentration, then looks back to the screen right as the song starts.

It's chaos. She gets the buttons muddled up, trips over her own ankles, misses the bar and grabs the air instead, almost causing her to fall— but Hyunjin's quick reflexes pull her into safety with a grip to the wrist.

In the middle of the song's chorus, Hyunjin asks (or rather yells) at her, "Are you okay?" without taking her eyes off the screen.

Hyejoo, now flushed to the core and her mind-to-body coordination even worse after the mini incident, answers, "I am, thanks!"

"You should be careful because it gets trickier at the end— ah! No!" Glancing over her date, even for a milisecond, betrayed Hyunjin as her feet rush to catch up to the dance steps she missed, her fever meter dropping lower by the second. "No!" she cries out again. "My score!"

Hyejoo bursts into laughter as she takes it easy, hitting all the moves on time and pushing her fever meter to its highest. By the time the song ends, she gets a B while the screen next to hers flashes a D.

"That's not fair," whines the girl next to her. Hyunjin puffs her cheeks out and frowns, her face resembling an angry kitten. "I had a perfect score until that part."

Her date doesn't reply, too stunned at the show of cuteness to answer.

Four hours later, Hyunjin groans and thumps her head against the display of a claw machine, having lost four coins in a row in an attempt to grab a cat plushie. Behind her, Hyejoo sips on a strawberry milkshake while she holds her date's boba tea in the other hand, amused at her date's expressive gestures.

Hand slipping into the coin purse in her bag, Hyunjin fishes another coin and says, "One more time."

"Are you sure?" It's not like she minds that their coins are being drained by a claw machine, but Hyejoo does sympathise with the agony of losing four consecutive times to a game. Even if it's one that's well known for being rigged.

Her date nods. "I want that plushie so bad. You never see these outside of the arcade."

"Really? I saw one a few days ago at a thrift store," answers Hyejoo.

"That's different," snaps Hyunjin. Her determination to win the plushie takes over her again, fires her up as she stands ramrod straight and stares at the machine with a new glint in her eye. "You don't get the satisfaction of winning it from a claw machine, do you?"

Hyejoo laughs, causing the other girl to whip her head around in time to catch her smile, eyes curved into soft crescents and teeth peeking out behind glossy lips. "I guess I understand. Go get it tiger."

Feeling like an athlete whose girlfriend cheered her on from the sidelines (the trickle of warmth growing on her cheeks doesn't help either), Hyunjin refocuses her attention back to the claw machine.

"Anyway, I'm beat."

They're finally out of the arcade after spending five hours there, strolling around the streets once more in search of a place to eat. Rays from the late afternoon sun blasts on their faces, a refreshing change from the dim artificial lighting in the arcade, and the neighborhood has taken up a new buzz: the five p.m. rush of people spilling in and out of the streets, food stalls enticing passersby with their aroma, the occasional street performers gathering crowds through booming music, and ceaseless chatter that echoes from one end to the other.

Patting her growling stomach, Hyunjin glances at her date. "Wanna grab some food?"

Hyejoo doesn't eat much, but she's wary of Hyunjin's endless pit of a stomach and her large appetite— after all, the latter __is__ an athlete— so she nods. "Sure. Where do you want to go?"

Instead of coming to a hip restaurant or a cafe, she finds herself winding down an alley full of street vendors, the air humid with smoke coming from the food stalls and heavy with delicious smells. In front of her was Hyunjin's slim yet broad-shouldered back, her wrist loosely held by the girl so they wouldn't lose each other in the mass of hungry patrons, black ponytail whipping back and forth as Hyunjin glances over her shoulder to talk to Hyejoo.

"Though I've never tried the odeng in this street before, I heard it's nice," she says as they squeeze through a narrow space between stalls. "Do you like odeng?"

Hyejoo shrugs even if the girl couldn't see her. "I don't eat much, but I'll eat anything tasty."

"You're in luck, then, because everything here tastes good!" Hyunjin stops at a stall, pulling her date in line behind her. "I usually go here alone because none of my friends want to queue for food when they're hungry, but trust me, it's worth waiting for."

The line shortens faster than they expected: with fried street snacks piled high on the trays and the sellers zipping back and forth between their tables, handing over food and change in quick succession. Hyunjin buys them a handful of odeng, handing half over to her date while biting eagerly into her own, sauce spluttering towards the corners of her lips. "Ah." A blissful grin spreads across her face. "This is heaven."

Not one for oily foods, Hyejoo takes a small, tentative bite and tests the taste on her tongue. "Oh." An affirmative nod. "It's pretty good."

"Isn't it? But wait, there's more." Before they could finish the snacks in their hands, Hyunjin drags her away to another stall selling pastries and warm buns fresh from the oven, its aroma much too tempting to handle. "Look!" the girl declares. "Bread!"

"Bread?"

"These are _delicious _,__ Hyejoo." Hyunjin turns to the seller to run off a number of orders from the tip of her tongue, then pays a generous amount of money for both of them and gratefully takes her bag of breads. "Since you haven't been here before, these will be my treat."

The good news of being treated to free food doesn't fall on Hyejoo's ears. Instead, the girl is still reeling over how her name was said so casually, so lightly, as if they've known each other since forever, as if they weren't mere strangers at the start of today. Her heart hammers wildly at her chest, unstoppable, helpless.

"Hyejoo?"

Then she whips her head up. "What? Oh, yeah." Accepting the bun into her hands, she lets out a small smile. "Thanks."

Hyunjin doesn't take her eyes off of her, studying the girl's expressions, the slump of her shoulders, her droopy eyelids and the downturn of her lips. Looping the plastic bag around her wrist, she asks her date, "Are you tired?"

"Not...not really. Why?"

"Don't lie. You must be exhausted after DDR." Again she takes her date by the wrist, pulls them away from the suffocating crowd of the market and into a quieter, calmer alley. The air becomes easier to breathe and the breeze feels colder on their skin as Hyunjin marches on with no hesitation to her steps, still taking bites out of her odeng in one hand while her bread bag swings from the other arm.

Alarmed at the sudden change in environment, Hyejoo halts on her feet and tugs on her wrist. "Wait, where are we going?"

"To a cafe! There's another one that I love to go to, but my friends don't like it because they think it's too far away whenever we hang out. It isn't, though. They're just lazy."

"And where is it?"

"Right down this corner." The girls cross the street, take a sharp turn to the left where the alley widens and people, though not as many as in the market, walked in and out of eatablishments. Both sides of the road were lined with homey cafes and hole-in-the-wall shops catered to the city's hipsters, people who wanted their own secret spaces in the hectic space downtown, or stylish teenagers like Hyunjin.

The bells at the door tinkles in welcome as she pushes the door to a cafe open, where a sophisticated smell of coffee balances a sticky sweet scent. Caramel, probably, or marzipan from the cakes lined on display, colourful among the brown-and-green shades of the interior: wood paneled walls surrounding quaint wooden furniture, with hanging plants and potted plants and flowering plants accenting the brown on the shelves, the counters, and windowsills. Hyunjin slides into one of the seats with much practiced ease, releasing her hand from her date's. "Here we are."

Wiggling her fingers free of any hand as she slides into her own seat, Hyejoo marvels at the sweets, pastries, cakes and other baked goods that surround them, each patron spotting their own selection of a pretty dessert. "Amazing," she breathes. "I don't go out a lot so I don't go to many cafes, but this is great."

Hyunjin smiles. "Isn't it? I love them but they tend to be expensive, and this one is pretty affordable for students like us. Also, the menu here can be daunting because it has fancy names and everything, so let me order for you." When a waiter approaches their table, Hyunjin rattles off with another well-practiced order, finishing her selection of pastries with a milkshake-sounding drink and a coffee-chocolate sounding drink.

Once the excitement from the arcade and being out on the hectic street disappears from Hyejoo's body, a new wave of nerves appear to swallow her whole. Had she really been spending the whole day long with __the__ Kim Hyunjin, otherwise known as The Love Of Her Life? Talking to her, laughing with her, playing games together and walking around town together?

Her hands intertwined on top of lap begin to tremble. _Wow _.__

While they wait for the orders to come, Hyunjin places her bags of foodie goods on the table and strikes up a conversation. "You know, we've spent the whole day together but we didn't talk much and I don't see you around at school. Where do you usually hang?"

Hyejoo shrugs. "Wherever Chaewon takes me."

"Ah, I see! She's your best friend, right?"

"Yeah. Since childhood."

A nod. Crossing one leg over the other and leaning forward, Hyunjin pops her chin on top of her fist. "I've never talked to her before. What's she like?"

Her date pauses to think. "Well...She has extreme duality. Everyone thinks she's an airhead, but she's pretty crafty and always has some new trick up her sleeve. She isn't the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, but she can slither her way out of most situations, even if she has to cry or suffer a bit. And yet..." Hyejoo heaves a heavy sigh like the burden of the world is on her shoulders. "She always gets us into trouble."

Hyunjin's eyes curve up in laughter. "Does she?"

Flustered at the girl's pretty smile and how she let her mouth run off without thinking, Hyejoo casts her eyes down at her lap and admires a single thread coming out from the seams of her pants. "Mhm."

"Well, Heejin and I are the opposite. Or more like..." Hyunjin taps her chin in thought. "More like _I'm_ Chaewon in our friendship?"

"How?"

A slow grin spreads across her face. Somehow— Hyejoo curses herself for this— Hyunjin still appears delicate and beautiful and pure, even with a malicious expression like that. "I'm not the scheming type like her, but I do like to prank my friends and family...a lot. Sometimes they get a little out of hand so I have to face Heejin's wrath, but..." a casual shrug. "I'm used to it."

Hyejoo juts out her lip. "Huh. You don't look like a prank-type of person."

A dismissive wave in the air. "Oh, Heejin would beg to differ."

As they slip into an easy conversation where any and every topic is brought to scrutiny, hours pass by without either of them noticing. Hyejoo forgets that she's talking to her long-time crush, one of the school's famous athlete and prettiest girl ever, because Hyunjin chatters on and on without a care in the world as if they've always been friends. As if they didn't start off the date on an awkward note, both of them forced into this setup by their best friends as a form of bargain, and that distance never existed between them in the first place.

Hyunjin herself doesn't remember any of that either, because she's drawn to Hyejoo's minute behaviour: her small voice when she talks, her sharp gazes that nobody else notices, how she folds inwards as she laughs, her pouty lips disappearing into all-teeth when she grins, the way she avoids eye contact like a flustered maiden— so different to what the rumours made her out to be. Maybe, just maybe, Hyejoo is the kind of cute girl Hyunjin could fall for (if she wasn't falling for her already).

At the back of their minds, they thank their friends for making this happen.

It's late evening when they part ways at a bus stop near the park where they first met, Hyunjin taking one route while Hyejoo takes the opposite direction. At this time of day, most people were already back home and preparing dinner, leaving the streets down to a dwindling handful of pedestrians and the occasional shop cleaning up after the dinner rush hour. Sweat trails down the backs of their neck and their temples after spending a day out in the sweltering heat, but neither girl seems bothered when they're too busy texting each other from different sides of the road.

Yes, Hyejoo has Hyunjin's number and is currently texting her. No, she wouldn't even _dare_ dream of this when she developed a crush on the other girl during her last year of middle school, not when they seemed to be two worlds apart and Hyunjin never spared her a second glance.

**hyejoo (olivia)**

_thanks for the food btw. i never knew those places existed_

**aeongjin**

_ofc!!! lmk when u wanna try new food bc im always down to take u_

Red rushes into the apples of Hyejoo's cheeks and the tips of her ears, all the way down to her neck and the ends of her fingertips. Is she suggesting another date? Does that mean...Hyejoo has a chance?

Before she could reject the slither of hope snaking towards her, another text from Hyunjin arrives.

**aeongjin**

_u know, i still kinda hate that i was forced into this_

**aeongjin**

_but i had a rly good time today_

**aeongjin**

_n im glad i met u_

**aeongjin**

_lets hang out again soon!_

If Hyejoo was a balloon right now, she would pop.

She couldn't finish typing her answer when the bus across the road arrives, blocking her crush (and today's date!) from view. Heart falling a little at that, she erases her previous text to reply,

**hyejoo (olivia)**

_oh no, i didn't get to wave goodbye. sorry_

**aeongjin**

_thats ok, we go to the same school anyway_

**aeongjin**

_cant wait to meet u there hehe_

Hyejoo groans and tilts her head back. How is this girl attacking her left and right without letting her breathe? The unfairness of it all.

Movement catches the corner of her eye. Tilting her head back down, Hyejoo stares at the bus windows until she finds Hyunjin weaving through the crowd, settling at a window seat and placing her bag onto her lap. After she's done settling down, she looks straight at Hyejoo's eyes and bursts into a charming, girlish grin, lifting a hand to wave at her.

Rather than waving back, Hyejoo opts to text instead.

**hyejoo (olivia)**

_i'm almost always free so i'll wait for your invitation_

**hyejoo (olivia)**

_thanks for the great date :) have a safe trip home_

**hyejoo (olivia)**

_see you at school?_

**aeongjin**

_ofc~ byebye_

The moment their teacher dismisses the class for lunch break, Chaewon swivels in her seat and stares her best friend down. "You still haven't thanked me yet."

Hyejoo doesn't look up from her notebook, busy doodling in the margins of her notebook. "For what?"

"For the date."

"Oh." Her face twitches, almost breaking the cool facade she has on, and shrugs. "Thanks, I guess. I got to talk to her."

"You were with her _the whole day long!_ " squeals the shorter girl, face splitting into a thousand-watt grin, unable to keep her excitement in anymore. "So how was it? How was she? Is she still the beautiful jock princess of your dreams? Or is she as evil as Heejin makes her out to be?"

Red trickles into the apples of Hyejoo's cheeks. The back of her chair thuds against the table behind her as she stands up, grabbing her backpack and shouldering the strap, not answering until both her and her best friend are out of the classroom. "I don't know," she says at last. "She's pretty and nice. That's it."

"Come on, Joo. You've liked her for so long; that can't be the only thing you say." Whacking a hand against her best friend's shoulder, Chaewon giggles in an all-knowing fashion. "You're whipped, aren't you? Fell for her so hard you can't get up anymore?"

"The one who wouldn't be able to get up anymore would be you," Hyejoo retorts, "when I'm done beating you up."

"Why would you do that? I helped you get together with the love of your life!"

"That doesn't mean the date wasn't uncalled for!"

Though there school provides a spacious canteen for all of its students, the two girls always eat by the courtyard to bask under the sun and breathe in the fresh scent of the trees, trimmed and kept proper by their school's gardeners. Today they choose a bench away from the school building, nearer to the entrance gates, where the student body's voices dimmed and they could speak freely, their homemade lunches sitting in between them as they take opposite ends of the bench.

Chaewon opens her mouth to counter her friend, but then an unexpected voice calls out Hyejoo's name from the other side of the courtyard. A girl of Hyejoo's height; round, innocent eyes twinkling in the sunlight; long straight hair pulled into a half-ponytail; knee-high socks that accentuate her slender yet firm legs, proof of her years in football and martial arts. "Hi Hyejoo!" greets Hyunjin, approaching their way and waving an excited hand at them.

Chaewon does a double take and stiffens up, her teasing gone from the tip of her tongue. Behind the girl was Heejin and Yerim, both of them grinning like meerkats to themselves.

"Oh, hey Hyunjin," answers Hyejoo, cool as a cucumber. Only her best friend can see the shy flush in her neck, the twitch of a flustered smile at her lips, her body freezing up at the sight of her long-time crush.

Hyunjin strides her way to the bench and peers over the girl's shoulder. "Whatchu got there?"

Catching a whiff of the girl's citrus-scented shampoo, Hyejoo struggles to keep herself together in the sight of their close proximity, her voice wavering at the slightest. "Homemade bento," she answers. "My mother made it for me this morning."

"How neat!" Even though there's barely any space left for her on the bench, Hyunjin swings over and squeezes herself at the edge, her legs pressed close to Hyejoo's and sharing her warmth. "My mom would never make me lunch in the morning— or at all, really. She says she won't have enough time to prepare me all the food since I eat so much."

"Do you want some?"

The girl waves her bread in dismissal. "I'm good. I have my weapons for the day," she says, showing off the bread in her hands with a cheeky smile.

Ignoring their conversation, Yerim strides up to the small blonde girl to her side. "Anyway, hi Chaewon! How are you doing?"

Chaewon flinches, instinctively curling into herself, before she regains her composure and purses her lips into an awkward smile. "Ah, hi Yerim. I've been fine, thank you." Under her breath, she whispers only for her best friend to hear, "Since when did Yerim know my name? And why is she, the Ideal Girl of our grade, talking to a rat like me?"

Hyejoo doesn't have time to respond when Heejin squeezes herself into the space between the two of them, putting her arm on Chaewon's shoulder in a well-intentioned but rather intimidating manner. "Glad to hear that. Have you been doing your work properly?"

"Of-of course," comes the timid answer. "I submitted my last overdue homework today."

The taller girl squeezes her shoulder, drawing her face closer in definite intimidation. "So you'll be attending the student council meetings properly, won't you?"

Yerim laughs. "Don't scare her so much. Shouldn't you pick on people your own size?"

While they fall into a conversation of their own, Hyunjin turns to the girl beside her and shows her a picture on the screen. "Look, the arcade we went to is adding a couple of game machines and they seem like the type you'd play. Do you wanna try it out with me?"

If Hyejoo had flushed earlier, now she transforms into a full strawberry from head to toe, her ears much darker than the red of her cheeks, and no attempt of digging her chin into herself could hide it. "Uh, if you're fine going with someone like me..."

An arm swings and smacks her a little too hard on the opposite shoulder, reminding her of Hyunjin's physical abilities. The girl herself grins, peering into Hyejoo's personal space, and says, "Of course! Why else would I invite you?" Sneaking a glance at her friends beside her, Hyunjin continues, "Besides, none of them would want to follow me for sure."

Out of nowhere, Heejin's face pops out from beside her and pokes her nose into Hyunjin's personal space. "Follow you where?"

"To the arcade."

Heejin's eyebrows rise in disapproval much like a mother at her naughty daughter, arms crossing over her chest. "Miss, did you forget you have to two test retakes?"

"Huh?" Hyunjin's eyes widen. "Wait, I do? Since when?"

"For the past month you've been skipping on the retake." An icy smile spreads across her best friend's face. "Even though I told you it's better to get it over and done with."

Leaning forward to look at Heejin, Hyejoo asks, "What subject is it for?"

"Geography and Korean literature."

Chaewon, spotting an opening in the conversation, immediately jumps at her chance. "Really? Hyejoo happens to be an ace at both subjects!"

"Eh?"

"Oh yeah!" Clapping her hands, Heejin says, "I remember your name was in the rankings before."

Head flipping back and forth from the two, Hyejoo could only muster, "Eh?"

Out of nowhere, a hand grabs her arm and Hyunjin brings her face a hand's span away from hers. "Oh my gosh, can you help me study for this? I'm as dumb as a rock and not even Heejin could help me with it."

Sending a quick glance at Chaewon (who bobs her head in obvious desperation), Hyejoo answers, "I...I mean, if you're okay with me helping you, then I don't mind?"

"Thank you Hyejoo!" Breaking out of her teary stupor, Hyunjin stands up and crushes the girl in a bear hug, both surprising her friends and her admirer. "I'll pay you back as soon as possible, I promise."

Frozen in her strong yet slender arms, Hyejoo sends Chaewon a quiet call for help. Yerim, who had been enjoying the scene before her, bursts into laughter.

"I'm so sorry to bother you with her stupidity," adds Heejin with a note of sympathy, as if to comfort her.

Hyejoo shakes her head, her bangs swaying in the movement, and smiles. "It's okay. I help Chaewon all the time, so I'm used to it."

When Sunday morning arrives, Hyunjin arrives at Hyejoo's house with a medium-sized satchel, dressed in black shorts and a flowy tanktop with a pale blue cardigan on top. Her hair, like last time, was tied to the side and her bangs were cleared away with colourful bobby pins. When Hyejoo spots her from her bedroom window, her knees almost gave way to how pretty her crush is.

Racing downstairs in a yellow hoodie and leggings, her hair pulled back into a messy bun with strands sticking all over, Hyejoo pulls open the door right as Hyunjin presses the doorbell.

"Oh!" Surprised at the quick appearance, Hyunjin takes a step back and blinks. "Hey. I was just about to ring the bell. How did you know I was here?"

Hyejoo flushes the slightest bit, panting to catch her breath. "Um, I saw you from my room. Don't worry about the bell; I think my family is still asleep anyway."

Leading her up the stairs and down the second-floor corridor, they burst through Hyejoo's spacious room. She scratches the nape of her neck, feeling vulnerable at her personal life being exposed— after all, the only other person who's been to her room and isn't her family is Chaewon. "Make yourself at home. I'll get some cushions for both of us."

On the far corner was a simple yet impressive gaming setup with a pair of large headphones lying next to a glowing keyboard and mouse pad, the large desktop (with double monitors!) decorated with stickers of all sorts. The walls were lined with posters of games and anime that she's never heard of with some art prints, post cards and others in between, each of them arranged into an aesthetic but not overbearing collage. Between the gaming setup and the bed was a medium-sized coffee table with a notebook and a can tin of stationery lying on the side. Translucent curtains framed the open windows where a tiny potted cactus sat on the windowsill, and a handful of neon stars decorate the ceiling above the bed. Placing her satchel by the foot of the bed, Hyunjin remarks, "Your room is cool."

Hyejoo returns with two worn sitting cushions, tosses them on opposite sides of the table, and then pauses. "Do you want any drinks? Tea? Juice?"

"Anything's okay." Her notes and textbooks in arm, Hyunjin arranges her items on the table and sits on one side, where she immediately slides one of Hyejoo's notes towards her. It's neat and efficient: the main information were listed out in bullet points in black pen, side information scribbled on the margins in pencil and headings highlighted in pink or blue. There were minute doodles hidden between the lines or in the margins, sometimes Chaewon's own doodles barging into the space. She smiles at it.

Then her eyes spot a familiar name among the scribbled exchange.

_kim hyunjin is pretty today too._

_u should totally make a move <3 - cw_

_i think i did, thanks to u._

_but did u ask her out yet? -cw_

_i can only dream._

And red races across her face.

Twenty minutes later, Hyunjin's mind is hazy from studying more than she has the past month, her head lying on the table and hair splayed all over. Two fingers snap a couple of times in front of her eyes.

"Earth to Hyunjin. Earth to Hyunjin. Your five minute break is over."

Groaning, Hyunjin plants her face on the desk. "No. I'm still tired."

"This is only the beginning," points out Hyejoo with an amused smirk on her face. "Come on. We can do this."

"But—"

"It's either one day of studying or another week of facing Heejin's anger. Anyway, it's not like you don't know anything on this subject so if we finish our revision by today, you'll be set for the retake."

At the encouraging words paired with Hyejoo's gentle voice, Hyunjin snaps up and straightens her back, her eyes twinkling with renewed energy. "Really?"

"Yeah! You're not as bad as you think you are." Glancing at her grand gaming setup, Hyejoo adds, "And I'll reward you if you finish it."

Her crush leans forward on the table until their foreheads are a hand's span away and her breath tickles Hyejoo. "What will it be?"

It's hard not to blush when such a pretty girl is this close to her, but Hyejoo swallows the needles in her throat and muses for a second. "Anything you want."

"Alright!" Throwing her hands up in the air with the vigor she regained, Hyunjin drags her practice questions back to herself and grabs a pen. "So where were we, Miss Hyejoo?"

When the household begins to wake up almost three hours later, marked by the clanging of pots and pans in the kitchen downstairs, loud yawns in the corridor and Hyejoo's mother bringing drinks and snacks on a tray, Hyunjin's energy begins to drain once more. She's whizzed through three-quarters of the topics from the study guide, thanks to Hyejoo's practical teaching and efficient notes, and her stomach protests for refreshments of some sort.

Plastic crackles as she rips open her second bag of chips while Hyejoo chews on gummy bears. Between them were two glasses of orange juice for the guest, apple juice for the teacher, and a plate of leftover baked goods that Hyejoo's mother made the day before. Since the plate was warmed up before being brought to them, an enticing smell of bread and pastries and cookies fill the room, making both girls sleepy and comfortable.

Clipping the half-finished bag of chips closed and reaching out for her third pastry, Hyunjin sighs. "This is great. Your mom is good at baking."

"Thanks." Hyejoo doesn't reveal that she'd specifically asked her mom to bake bread for her yesterday.

"I know we're not done yet, but I've finished so many topics in one go." Leaning against the bed, Hyunjin tilts her head and makes a puppy face, one that causes Hyejoo to almost inhale her next gummy bear. "Can I please request my award now?"

Hyejoo makes sure the gummy bear is chewed before she swallows it and replies. "If you get it now, you might not finish studying at all."

"I won't get it now. I just want to put in a request."

"Hm." A moment of thought. "Sure. What is it?"

Hyunjin purses her lips. "I want...a girlfriend."

Silence. The air freezes between them as Hyejoo's eyes widen and a montage of the past few weeks spent with her crush, getting closer with _the_ Kim Hyunjin, flashes before her eyes. Her hand stops rummaging in the packet of gummy bears until she can finally let out a small, "Oh. A girlfriend?"

As if oblivious to the fact that her world is crashing down on her that very moment, Hyunjin bobs her head eagerly. "Yep. A girlfriend."

Now that her appetite is completely gone, Hyejoo removes her hand from the packet and places it in the middle of the table. "Um, I've never had one before so I don't know how to help you." Then she breaks into an awkward smile. "I can only help you this much with your studies."

Hyunjin waves a dismissive hand in the air. "Don't worry. There's nothing much for you to help."

And so the study session continues. This time, the energy between them is flipped one-eighty degrees: Hyejoo's teaching is a little slower and quieter than before, responding to her crush only when she's called, and Hyunjin races back and forth between her notes, the textbooks, and practice questions so fast, her legs are jittering from excitement. It takes her another hour to finish all the topics, another forty-five minutes for her to revise her study materials, and twenty minutes for her to complete the practice test with all the right answers. She grins at Hyejoo with the fruit of her efforts, but Hyejoo manages half a smile instead.

Before they leave the room to eat a late lunch together (Hyejoo's mother called them an hour before, but they weren't done studying yet), Hyunjin grabs Hyejoo's arm. "Wait," she says. "What about my reward?"

Ah. The dreaded question. She doesn't even have the energy to fake a smile by now, knowing that she's been rejected in a roundabout way, so Hyejoo shrugs. "I don't know how I can help you, so—"

Then Hyunjin presses her lips against hers and everything freezes for the second time.

For a moment, Hyejoo's world smelled like a citrus-scented shampoo and bread, a feather-like sensation enveloping her body. The kiss ends as quickly as it had come, but Hyejoo's mind reels it over like a broken mixtape while Hyunjin traps her in her arms, a smile that's too intimate for their sort-of friends status gracing her face.

"You're the girlfriend, silly," says the latter, her arms finding comfort at Hyejoo's waist, pulling the other girl in. "That's why you didn't need to help."

And Hyejoo crumbles to the floor.

"Is it really fine if I sit here?"

"It's fine, it's fine," answers Hyejoo as she drags her girlfriend within the camera range. As she does, the chat explodes with emoticons, bursts of _congratulations!_ and _you're so cute together!_ and _you guys are so beautiful???_ messages filling up her screen, to which none of them she pays attention to. "They've wanted to meet you for a while now. Say hi."

"If you say so." At last, Hyunjin appears on her stream in one of Hyejoo's black hoodies, a cat face mask and glasses. Leaning forward towards the camera, her eyes curve up into a smile and she raises a hand. "Hello!"

Now that her girlfriend is next to her, Hyejoo's excitement turns into one of intimacy, her grin softer when directed towards her girlfriend. "You should introduce yourself."

Hyunjin pulls her mask down. "Hi, my name is Hyun- uh, my name is Jin and I'm her girlfriend." Throwing a careless arm over the girl beside her, she squeezes Hyejoo and says, "Together we're the JooJin pair!"

"Uh, no actually." Enjoying the hug too much, Hyejoo laughs and says, "The chat already calls us HyeJin."

"What? That doesn't sound like a ship name at all. It sounds like a normal name." Hyunjin pulls up her mask once more. "JooJin is cuter."

Her girlfriend raises her eyebrows and turns back to the computer. "Anyway, now that you're here, let's start the stream properly. How does a game of Street Fighter sound like?"

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  **some Raw Notes that i kept while i wrote this fic:**   
>    
>  ++ pls make this funny oh my god i'm so sad after reading that angels!suburbia!olivia/yves [fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22731121) what the FUCK    
>  ++ also olivia liked hyunjin since middle school, but hyunjin is big dumb. olivia just doesn't care enough   
>  ++ heejin agreed to set olivia up w hyunjin bc chaewon owes olivia a lot of favours HAHAH    
>  ++ WHY DID CHAEWON BARGAIN W HEEJIN???    
>  +++ chaewon & heejin are both student councils, but chaewom skips many meetings bc she's always late w hw/assignments + need to write apology reports, so heejin covers for her   
>  ++ chaewon owes everybody a favour tbh   
>  reading back, the ending was a little rushed so i'll probably add more stuff to it later on. anyway hmu on [twt](https://twitter.com/raingami) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/raingami)! i don't bite   
> 


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